Layer unveiled “world’s first 3D printed consumer wheelchair”

It was the result of a two-year project that was carried out by the studio’s new research division, LayerLAB, that has been created in collaboration with 3D-printing company Materialise.

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Go Chair, described by Layer, as a “tool to improve the quality of life of wheelchair users”. The 3D printed chair features a made-to-measure seat and foot at bay.

The seat was printed with a semi-transparent resin and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) plastic that provides shock-absorption while titanium will be used to construct the foot bay.

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Both of the customisable components were created by mapping the user’s biometric information and inputting the data into 3D-printing software — wherein Layer said it is “world’s first” for consumer wheelchairs that haven’t been developed mostly for athletes.

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“With the Go wheelchair, we saw an opportunity to really progress the manual mobility category for users with disabilities, and to use 3D-printing technology to solve significant and meaningful problems,” said Hubert.

Layer also worked with such drawbacks of wheelchairs currently on the market which one of these was the strain and difficulty of self-propelling particularly in wet conditions.

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In response to it, the studio developed a lightweight carbon-fibre spokes to fit inside the chair’s wheels and a wheel surface designed to lock into specialized custom-made gloves.

The Go wheelchair prototype was launched in Clerkenwell Design week with its aim to attract interests from manufacturers to help bring the product to the market.